What to Say
by A Fire in the Attic
Summary: It starts when Isaac says, "How do we tell Scott?" (Stisaac; ace!Isaac, kind of)


"How do we tell Scott?" - Stisaac

Word Count: 3587

* * *

It starts when Isaac says, "How do we tell Scott?"

Confused, Stiles replies, "What, that I kidnapped his new best friend who kidnapped him from me after he ditched me for his third-time girlfriend?" He curls the arm around Isaac's hips tighter. It's weirdly easy to play video games while Isaac plasters himself on top of him. Or maybe he's just used to the bro-cuddling now, and good at getting around it.

Isaac lifts his head to stare at Stiles blankly, and then stands up. "I should go," he says, sounding strangely wounded.

"Uh," Stiles says, sitting up. "You okay?"

"Fine," Isaac says, and then vaults through the window.

Or maybe that's when it ends.

* * *

It actually starts when Scott and Allison start dating again. October 7, and Stiles remembers the date because Scott posts celebratory "We made it another week!" tweets, every week. Without fail. He never tags Allison in them but she retweets them every time. Without fail.

Because Scott and Allison are literally the most boring couple in the world (familial vendettas aside) they make up in the cafeteria, while Isaac and Stiles look on. That day, Isaac had claimed the coveted seat next to Scott, leaving Stiles to sit across the table from both of them.

Stiles was passively glaring at Isaac and eating a cookie when Allison sat down next to Scott and says, "Um, are you still...?"

And Scott answers, "Yeah, are you...?"

And Allison replies, "Yeah."

And then the two of them kissed, birds chirped their joy, and flowers sprung out of their footsteps.

Stiles had rolled his eyes and made a face at Isaac, and then had done a double take when he came to two realizations: 1. He'd tried to get Isaac to sympathize with him. 2. Isaac had actually _done it_.

For a long second, the two frenemies had gaped at each other, confused about how to proceed, when before their relationship had been based purely on passive-aggressive pissing matches over Scott.

"We should go out tonight," Scott had suggested, pulling the two boys from their reverie.

"Totally," Allison said. "We could go bowling?"

Scott had grinned dopily. "Okay."

The two of them were firmly in Fairy Tale Land. Stiles groaned and made another face at Isaac. No big deal this time, even when Isaac made one back.

"Hey, you guys don't mind if I can't hang out tonight, right?" Scott asked, and Stiles took a moment to be impressed that Scott had remembered them long enough to ask.

"No problem?" Isaac said, glancing at Stiles with raised eyebrows.

Stiles shrugged. "Sure thing, buddy."

"Cool," Scott said, and then returned to the Sparkly World of Allison.

Stiles looked back at Isaac and finished his cookie. "Well, that was dumb," he said.

Isaac grinned. "Yeah."

Neither of them ever came out and said "that" referred to fighting over Scott, but both of them seemed to understand it. And that was enough.

"You want to come over and play Halo, anyway?" Stiles asked.

"Sure," Isaac said.

Yeah. That's how it started.

* * *

Stiles doesn't want whatever they have to end because of the strange...fight? Had that been a fight? Isaac looked gutted and Stiles can't figure out why that would have happened.

He knows that he and Isaac cuddle more than typical friends do, but he'd honestly chalked that up to Isaac being a touch-starved werewolf with an angsty alpha who was good at patting Isaac on the back but not at hugging, probably. And Stiles likes to cuddle! It's not _that_ unusual, okay? Anyway, his only other close-enough-to-cuddle-with friend had a girlfriend he'd rather be cuddling with, so Stiles might have been a little touch-starved himself. Whatever.

And he and Isaac are...bros. Like, the best kind of bros. Close enough that Stiles barely gets upset when Isaac beats his high scores because he will forever be the best at Rainbow Road.

Unless that's not how it is?

Sure, Isaac is ridiculously gorgeous and Stiles would _love_ to have something to tell Scott about, but he's pretty sure Isaac isn't interested.

Unless he is?

Stiles catalogues how Isaac behaves around him quickly: the way Isaac makes sure to jostle him playfully in the school hallways, the way Isaac curls up around him when they're playing Mario Kart, the way Isaac stares at his mouth sometimes—_holy crap_.

The bro-cuddling is not bro-cuddling.

* * *

"So this is weird," Stiles said when he and Isaac walked into his house that first afternoon.

Isaac shrugged. "Seems pretty typical for us, though, doesn't it?"

Stiles had to agree with that. For a second they stood awkwardly in the middle of his bedroom until Stiles shrugged and dropped his backpack onto the floor. "So what do you want to play first?"

Isaac had picked Super Smash Bros. Stiles decided that he was okay.

* * *

Stiles texts Isaac. "Are we still going to see Iron Man tomorrow?"

"Duh," Isaac answers immediately. A few minutes later, he shoots a follow up text. "Why wouldn't we?"

"I thought you were mad at me," Stiles answers.

For a while there's radio silence and Stiles spends his time screwing around reading articles on Cracked (The Four Worst Political Candidates You Won't Believe Got Elected and Six Urban Legends that Will Make You Piss Yourself prove to be interesting enough to hold his attention). When Isaac responds at last, the message just reads, "Not mad."

"Sorry," Stiles sends back any way. He thinks he knows what Isaac wanted to tell Scott and now he feels bad for leading Isaac on a little. Or something like that. But he doesn't want to lose one of his closest friends, and anyway, he's not sure what Isaac meant. At least not for certain.

* * *

For the first month Isaac had been skittish about being touched, but one day, as they'd been leaving school, he'd punched Stiles playfully, and apparently that opened the floodgates.

After that, Isaac sat as close to Stiles as possible during their biology class and when they studied for history together, knocked their knees together.

Stiles had kind of rolled with all of it because he didn't really mind. He'd always been pretty tactile and this just meant he and Isaac were actually becoming friends, right?

Definitely.

And he was surprised to discover he didn't actually mind the idea. Sure, he'd been glad to have someone to bother now that Scott was firmly in Butterflies and Feathers Land with Allison, but he'd kind of assumed there would be more bothering and less...laughing.

But Isaac was funny, in a vicious way. Coincidentally, that was Stiles' favorite kind of humor. They laughed a lot together.

Plus Isaac was a secret nerd. He fronted with the leather jackets, but he liked comic books just as much as Stiles did, and the two of them spent hours arguing over whether Iron Man or Batman did more good for the world.

(Isaac and Iron Man won that argument. Stiles will concede that Batman needs to work on a few things in the helping people area.)

* * *

The thing is, Stiles thinks—thought? No, thinks—that Isaac likes Scott. There had been entire weeks of longing gazes directed at him. Then Allison had snuck back into Scott's life and the gazes had slowed down, but Isaac still likes Scott.

He has too.

Right?

Stiles is confused.

* * *

"Do you think they'll last?" Isaac asked Stiles one day in December. He was on twitter, frowning at Scott's profile.

Scott had just tweeted about his tenth week anniversary with Allison. Stiles knew because he got Scott's texts sent to his phone. When he wasn't tweeting about Allison, Scott usually sent in things that made him laugh (usually said by Stiles or Isaac), work anecdotes, or random trivia from whatever veterinarian book he was reading. Scott was a nerd, basically. An Allisonsexual nerd.

"For the record," Stiles said, idly highlighting a sentence in his chemistry book. "Scott says he likes girls. I don't think that's true. He literally just likes Allison."

"And you," Isaac said.

"Uh, like, as a brother," Stiles corrected, looking up from the text.

Isaac purses his lips and looks over at him. "No, seriously. You guys have always been so...intense."

"Well, Scott was my first kiss," Stiles mused.

"That doesn't even surprise me."

"Tongue was involved."

"_Still_ not surprising."

"Really?" Stiles asked, drumming his fingers. "Allison was surprised."

"Allison is like the sun for Scott and that's all she's ever known of him," Isaac said, shrugging. "But you're always gonna be his moon."

"I resent that," Stiles said. "He definitely rotates around me. Or he did, before all the werewolf stuff happened." Then he pointed the highlighter at Isaac. "That answers your question, though. Scott and Allison are going to last forever, but they'll break up at least three more times."

"Four," Isaac countered.

"You're probably right," Stiles agreed.

* * *

Stiles is...nervous. And that's stupid. Because Isaac is his (second) best friend and all they're doing is going to a midnight premier of Iron Man 3. Which will be awesome. They don't even have to talk about what happened. They can talk about superheroes instead!

Yeah!

No. Nope. Stiles can't do this. He should turn around right now, and text Isaac that he can't make it because he's sick, but hey, Derek can have his ticket since they already reserved it!

Isaac taps on the window of the passenger seat.

Never mind.

Stiles unlocks the door. "Hey," he says, grinning with false bravado. "Ready to go?"

"Yep!" Isaac agrees. "I have the tickets. Your turn to buy popcorn."

"Yeah, yeah," Stiles says, but he's already relaxing, because Isaac is sliding into the seat looking like he isn't bothered at all and you know what? They're seeing Iron Man 3 and it's going to be _awesome_.

And anyway, Isaac is awesome. Stiles is way more awesome.

And if Isaac actually does want to be more than bros? Then Stiles is...definitely okay with that.

* * *

"Maybe we should do something where we aren't here," Stiles suggested. They were in their usual positions—Stiles sprawled across his bed and Isaac flopped back against him. It had taken some maneuvering, but they've both perfected the ability to cuddle and play Mario Kart—Stiles holds the controller in front of Isaac since his arms are wrapped around his waist, and Isaac holds his controller above that. It works. At first elbows hit tender places, but they've managed it now.

"But I _like_ here," Isaac sighed. "Here I don't have to deal with alpha packs and Derek's weirdly sassy and creepy uncle."

"Believe me when I say I get it," Stiles said. "But I, for one, am hungry. Let's get waffles."

"Pancakes," Isaac said.

"Dude, no. Waffles are better."

"Nope."

"Yes."

It was another draw.

* * *

"So what did you think?" Isaac asks as they're leaving the theatre.

"I honestly didn't expect that plot twist," Stiles admits, shoving his hands into his pockets. "But I guess it's a pretty smart move."

"I saw it coming," Isaac says, shrugging. He wraps an arm around Stiles' shoulders like it's nothing and—weirdly—it _is_ nothing. "It's what I would do if I was in that position."

"I'm supposed to be the brains of this operation," Stiles complains. He wraps an arm around Isaac's waist and almost trips because he's not paying attention to the end of the sidewalk. "Hey, are you trying to be the boy in this relationship?" Why is Isaac the one with the shoulder hug? Why is Stiles holding his waist? Ridiculous.

"I am a boy," Isaac says blankly.

"No, I mean, you're the one with the shoulder thing," he explains.

"I'm the tall one."

"I'm tall, too," Stiles argues.

"Not tall enough," Isaac retorts.

"Ugh, I hate you. See if I let you cuddle with me later."

Isaac regards him fondly and squeezes his shoulder and suddenly Stiles gets it.

They're not dating. They're not bros. At some point they skipped over both of those phases and landed in Marriageville. Husbandland.

"We aren't friends," he says out loud, because if there's one thing Stiles is terrible at, it's sitting on new realizations.

"Um?" Isaac says, and seriously, how did he make that a _question?_

"I mean we're basically in love and I didn't actually notice," he explains.

"Oh, well, uh, yeah," Isaac says. He pats Stiles' back reassuringly. "It might have been hard to pick up on."

"I thought you liked Scott! And kind of just used me as a stand in until he wasn't busy with Allison."

"It's complicated," Isaac explains, which isn't an explanation at all.

* * *

Let the record state that Stiles hugged Isaac first.

And, okay, it had been under duress, or something like that, but Stiles took the initiative.

They'd been eating dinner at the only place in town with good curly fries, even though Isaac didn't really like curly fries—apparently he preferred tornado fries. Stiles didn't even know what those were, which had caused Isaac to make a sound of absolute _distress_ and then insist that they go to the next county fair and buy like five plates of them. Stiles had agreed but was pretty sure he'd still like the curly fries more.

Anyway, Stiles was eating curly fries and Isaac had a burger, and was regaling Stiles with a story of the time Derek had accidentally deleted Peter's porn folder from his laptop. Stiles might have been laughing hard enough to cry, and only part of that came from the feeling that Derek had in fact done so on purpose and had only pretended it was an accident. Actually the idea of Peter and porn was pretty gross and Stiles was doing his best not to focus on that.

But Derek being a failboat—failwolf?—was the funniest thing he'd ever potentially heard.

And okay, it was also kind of funny that he apparently liked the same porn as his uncle.

"Oh, I don't think Derek was looking at the porn," Isaac said when Stiles said as much. "He was trying to find the bestiary. The folder was labeled 'Derek Don't Look In Here' and I think he thought Peter was being difficult."

"He was probably trying to protect Derek's virtue," Stiles snorted. He didn't get a chance to ask how mentally scarred Derek had been, because his phone started ringing. "Hello?" he said, answering it.

"Stiles, it's Deputy Mike," the tinny voice on the other end of the line said. "Your dad just got taken to the hospital—"

"What happened?" Stiles demanded, signaling for a check and leaping to his feet in the same motion. "Is he okay?"

"He got shot. He's going into surgery, but it was just his shoulder and he should be totally fine."

"Holy shit," Stiles said into the phone. "Can I get a check, _please_?" he yelled to the restaurant at large. "I'll be there in like ten minutes, okay?"

"Drive the speed limit, son. If you're here in less than 15, I'll give you a ticket."

"Like hell you will," Stiles said, and then hung up the phone. He snatched the check from the hand of the flustered waitress, put down the appropriate amount of money, and then practically ran from the place.

He wasn't even aware Isaac had followed him until he was peeling out of the lot and realized Isaac was in the passenger's seat.

"Oh," he said stupidly, and Isaac rolled his eyes.

He made it to the hospital in eight minutes and practically ran across the parking lot and to the front desk.

"Stilinski," Isaac said, next to him, because Stiles was panting and Isaac looked barely ruffled. "He would have just been brought in."

"He's just going into surgery," the receptionist said. "Try waiting room five."

"Thank you," Isaac said, and then grabbed Stiles arm to haul him down the hallway. They sat next to each other until the doctor came out to give a report.

Stiles leg would have been bouncing or he would have been pacing, but Isaac had a hand pressed down on his knee, grounding him and holding him still.

"Your dad will be fine," the doctor said. "He's sleeping now, but you can go see him."

"Thank you so much," Stiles said, getting up and almost running across the room. He stopped when he went around the corner, and came back out to tug Isaac into a full-blown Stilinski Hug (which were legendary, okay?).

And maybe Isaac hugs were legendary, too, because that hug relaxed Stiles enough that he could walk down the hall slowly and quit panicking long enough to sit down next to his dad's bed.

After that he started bouncing his leg again.

* * *

"How is it complicated?" Stiles asks when they're seated in the Jeep. Things can be complicated, if they're complicated in the right way. Or at least, not in the wrong way?

"Erica suggested that I was asexual," Isaac says blandly, propping his feet up onto the dashboard. He's doing the deflection thing, putting on a bunch of bravado to protect his soft innards. Or whatever.

"Asexual," Stiles repeats, and tries to remember what he knows about that —which is not much. The word mostly brings to mind phrases like binary fission and self-pollination.

"I looked it up," Isaac continues. "I think I'm probably more gray-a then ace."

"Gray-a," Stiles repeats.

"Can you not do that?" Isaac snaps, only getting more tense. He crosses his arm and slumps a little. "Look, basically...I just...I have a really low sex drive but I really like being around you and I don't just want to be your friend. I don't think I'm asexual because I am attracted to you...it just...took a while to get there."

"Oh," Stiles says, but he's not sure exactly what this is going to entail and he knows what he'll be doing tonight. "So I need to Google all of this, but...do you want to come over and answer my questions?" he asks hopefully.

"Yeah, okay," Isaac answers, relaxing. "Anyway. How awesome was Pepper?"

* * *

**Epilogue**

"So, how _are_ we going to tell Scott?" Stiles asks, spinning around in his chair to look at where Isaac is sprawled across his bed.

"You're the brains of this operation," Isaac points out.

"Not fair," Stiles sighs, rocking back. "Why are you the beauty and the brawn?"

"Genetics," Isaac says, shrugging. "And also being a werewolf."

"Werewolves do seem supernaturally beautiful," Stiles agrees, eying him.

Isaac grins at him and hugs a pillow against his chest. "The bite is a gift."

Stiles snorts. "Did Derek give you that line, too? What a dork."

Isaac laughs. "Are we...okay?"

"Dude, more than okay," Stiles says. "I think I get the sexuality thing. We can talk about boundaries and shit later, right?"

"Sure," Isaac says. "I don't want to do anything right now, anyway."

"Totally cool. I've waited this long," Stiles says. "I'm joking." He added quickly.

"I know," Isaac says, rolling his eyes. "Get over here and cuddle me."

"I'm still mad about the tall comment," Stiles says, but jumps on top of Isaac anyway. "Snuggle me."

"You're a bigger dork than Derek and I don't even like you," Isaac in forms him even as he wiggles around to hold Stiles in the most comfortable position. "Watch your elbows."

Stiles elbows him on purpose and blows a raspberry in his neck. "You like me a lot."

"Do not," Isaac says, arching his neck away from him. "You're gross."

"You're grosser."

"The wittiest comeback of all time," Isaac says drily. "Scott would probably tweet that."

"I would tweet what?" Scott asks as he walks through the bedroom door.

"Nothing," Stiles says, settling with one arm stuck under Isaac's neck and the other one holding Isaac's hand. "Just stuff. Aren't you supposed to be with Allison right now?"

"Her dad said she had to go home so they can train or something," Scott says, sitting down in the computer chair. "You guys look comfy."

"Mmhmm," Isaac says. "Stiles is very comfy. It's the only reason I keep him around. Well, that and our mutual love for Pepper."

"I like Pepper, too," Scott says, pouting. "Stiles, why don't we ever cuddle like that?"

"You have Allison," Stiles says.

Scott sighs and leans back in the chair. "When are you guys going to tell me? Were you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Stiles asks.

"I know you're dating. Or whatever. It's _really_ obvious," Scott says

Stiles kneed Isaac. "Why did Scott know before me?"

"Because you're obtuse," Isaac suggests.

"Ugh," Stiles says. "I hate you."

"Nah," Isaac says.

"Nah," Stiles agrees.

"I'm leaving," Scott says, clearly disgusted.

"You and Allison were worse," Stiles complains.

"I know," Scott says, frowning. "You're going to be incorrigible when you two finally bang."

"Shut up," Stiles says, and Isaac throws a pillow at Scott.

"Bye," Scott says, walking out of the room.

"I love you, man," Stiles yells after him.

"_Intense_," Isaac mutters.

"Oh, gross, dude. Hey, can I kiss you?" Stiles asks, propping himself up on his elbows.

Isaac's eyes widen. "Okay."

"Yeah?" Stiles says, leaning closer. "You can say no."

"I'm not saying no," he says quickly.

Stiles hesitates. "Technically we just started dating, though," he says. "Should we wait?"

Isaac curls a hand around his neck and yanks him down to kiss him quickly, just a soft peck. "Nope."

Stiles nods slowly. "Nope," he agrees, and leans down to kiss Isaac again.

* * *

A/N: I'm a giant fan of ace!Isaac even though I didn't write him as exactly ace!Isaac. He's kind of a mix of ace and demi and that was really nice to write! Hopefully no one was offended by my glazed over explanation but that's basically how I would explain my own sexuality so...? If you think I should have done a better job, let me know! :)


End file.
